When an agency is getting ready to release a product/service overseas, one of the most crucial problems that will come on their way is to make a decision whether to translate the name of the product or not. It’s not a kind of decision that they could ignore. A popular brand named Starbucks’ Gingerbread Latte fell down on their face in Germany after it didn’t understand the importance of translating the name into German.
Sales start improving shortly after the company took the decision and corrected its mistake; however that doesn’t suggest translating the product names always work out for you. It could be hard to imagine for you that Apple translating iPhone into different languages are going to be available here. So what will help you to decide whether your brand product names need translating?
Different Types of Market Exist
Collecting the information about the market where your client is working presently is really imperative for you. Let’s we take the example of Starbucks once again since there many incidents took place there. First of all, gingerbread is an extremely popular vacation option in Germany; however Starbucks had only the potential of capturing that holiday spirit once they decided to market their drink as the Lebkuchen Latte. The much improving growth they witnessed after that incident surprised their many competitors.
Some markets have expertise in responding better to the brand product names in their local language than others. For example, in a number of Asian international countries, English names for international products are seen to be found much appealing and attractive. This sentiment may fail when we talk about it in Germany and several other European countries. It would be good for you if take care of the things on a case-by-case basis. The results would surely be into your favor if you are succeed in combining your clients‘ expertise of their particular market with your know-how of in-country states cultural nuances. A good company like Trid India uses in-country linguists who have good understanding on both the target market’s culture and the subject matter experts, making translation a hassle-free process as we’re capable of executing the desired target audience reaction in the best possible way.
Different Types of Translation Exist
The most common motive to translate a product name is when the original brand product name means something unwanted in another language. These are the instances when you need to advise your customers to translate the name. Here, I want to give you an example. Nokia selected the name Lumia for one of its wide product range, which was later seen to be used as a slang term for the prostitutes in Spanish. In addition to this, the name Peugeot itself used in certain parts of China has the same meaning.
It’s very important for you to get aware of how your target market is introduced with the original name as well as a potential translation. There are many firms that can do this by just field-testing the two popular names (or we can say that maybe a few variants) with sample target market where they can. Trust us; the results you will get from this would be quite surprising.
The Final Words For The Clients
There could be no denying to this fact that there are no special rules and regulations you need to follow while translating the product names for your clients. Your decision will only be based on marketing results, brand perception and product sales and the most important thing is that only the client has the authority to take the decisions for the respective field. The team of the professionals associated with us makes sure that you will be guided with all the relevant and useful cultural and linguistic information that could help you make an informed decision. All the best for your final decision!!
Summary: Translating the brand name or its particular product name is equally important as branding for your business, in some cases. Read the full article to know its relevancy and importance for your business.
